On the 60 year anniversary of Bloody Sunday the Voice of Selma asks students, “Do you have a song in your heart?”
By: Samantha Siedow
Jan. 30, 2025
A hush settled over the crowd as the Voice of Selma's first note resonated through the air of the University of Minnesota's Coffman Memorial Union, rich and full of history.
Students, faculty and staff alike sat in awe as the sound of Bettie Mae Fikes' voice swept over the 60 listeners in the room Jan. 30 during the 60th Anniversary Jubilee of the Bloody Sunday march in Selma, Ala. Fikes, known as the Voice of Selma, has been involved in Black Freedom activism since she was a teenager, including the Bloody Sunday march with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. across Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge.
“I’m here to tell you a little bit about yesterday. Today is my day, tomorrow will be the next generation.” - Bettie Mae Fikes
State troopers and local residents on March 7, 1965, attacked unarmed protestors calling for an end to barriers preventing Black Americans from exercising their voting rights. The state troopers’ use of batons and tear gas was widely documented by the media, bringing national attention to what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
Videos and photographs of the brutality inflicted by state troopers on the activists were shown by major media outlets, sparking nationwide outrage. This was especially true in northern states, where many had previously been unaware of the extreme violence faced by Black Americans living in the South.
Five months later, then-President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which prohibited racial discrimination in voting.
Fikes is a proponent of using music to lead Civil Rights marches, and is credited with changing the lyrics of popular gospel song “This Little Light of Mine” to call out figures like former Dallas County, Ala., Sheriff Jim Clark, who used violent methods against unarmed Civil Rights protesters during the Selma to Montgomery marches of 1965.
“This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine. Tell Jim Clark, I’m going to let it shine.” - Bettie Mae Fikes
Arranging gospel songs into freedom songs was a great way to popularize the Civil Rights movement, according to Fikes. Her rearrangements and musical talents were quickly recognized in the activism sphere.
“Do you know that music can calm the wildest beast?” Fikes said to the crowd.
During her performance at the 60th Anniversary Bridge Crossing Jubilee, sponsored by the University of Minnesota MLK program, Fikes alternated between speaking in hushed tones and belting out powerful medleys.
Her backing band, Batum Gingery, Pierre Lewis and Dan Carpel were quick on their toes to jump in each time she began singing. They had to be because, as Fikes said, she never knows what she’s going to sing until she’s on stage.
Fikes’ performance included the song “At Last” by Etta James, a versatile singer best known for blending influences from gospel, blues, jazz, soul and R&B in her music.
Fikes said this performance was the first time she sang an Etta James song since she worked with her band about a decade ago, and it was not a song she’d rehearsed with the musicians prior to this performance.
“I have to do what God gives me to do, whatever jumps out of my head and makes me feel,” Fikes said.
Fikes has appeared at many commemoration events as a keynote speaker. She said it is particularly important for her to reach students so they could understand the sacrifices her generation and those before her made to make progress in civil rights and equality.
“Everything you take for granted, someone had to die for,” Fikes said.
Kane Smego, a National Poetry Slam finalist, co-founder of the youth arts and education nonprofit Sacrificial Poets and friend of Fikes, performed two spoken word pieces at the event.
Smego said he tours and performs especially at universities to provide an avenue, tools and process for students to think about their identities and to give them a mechanism for sharing their stories.
“Artists like tonight are proof that we don’t do art for art’s sake, that art has a deeper meaning, in the greatest example of folks like Betty, who risked a lot in her art to spread messages and resist,” Smego said.
Evan Johnson, the university’s associate director of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, academic adviser for the MLK program and professor teaching the MLK 3000 immersion class, said the theme of music and art in the jubilee was very intentional.
Johnson said exposing students to art from the Civil Rights Movement keeps history alive for students while alleviating some of the heavy emotional weight of the topic.
“Part of commemorating a historical moment or event is to try to be intentional on how to do it in a way where the past doesn't seem so distant as if it's just in black and gray scale,” Johnson said. “The past rhymes. Past things live through generational impacts of today.”
Fikes said in today’s world, she feels like the groundwork she and other civil rights activists laid is being undone.
To Fikes, music is resistance, and she said she plans to sing until she can’t anymore.
“When I say I'm here to speak on yesterday, today and tomorrow — well, in music, when I'm singing, I want people to feel,” Fikes said.